The Scarlet Family
by Dragon'sHost
Summary: In the past, an 18-year-old Cobra raises a distant cousin to keep her out of the foster care system, but 11-year-old Erza refuses to behave like a normal human being and her two male friends need to go. In the present, Cobra deals with the kids he looked after becoming adults, and a strange attraction to Erza's new blonde friend. CoLu Week 2015. Day 6: Family.
1. Prologue

**YES EIEN I DID IT, I WROTE IT. NOW EAT YOUR BOOK.**

 **I totally messed with the ages of some of the characters in order to make this work.**

 **Also, most teachers aren't anything like Cobra. But this is COBRA.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail**

* * *

 ** _The Scarlet Family_**  
 ** _Prologue_**

* * *

The class of freshman waited with bated breath for the signal that the day's tortuous lesson was finally over, and that they could be free to enjoy the good things in life once more.

Good things that they all collectively believed their terrifying professor was incapable of understanding and/or feeling - a conclusion they had come to in the scant five minutes they'd known the man.

"Hey!" the professor shouted, catching onto the inattentiveness all around. "You've still got fifty minutes left, so I want all your fucking eyes up here! I'm not teaching you this shit for my health, and you're all here because you chose to take this goddamn class for whatever shit degree you're pursuing. So get the most out of your exorbitant tuition fees and fucking pay attention when I talk!"

Suddenly, the dark-skinned man holding court over the frozen masses whipped around to stare straight at one blond in particular. "Mr. Eucliffe," he snarled. "I see that fucking phone. Worse - _I hear it._ Have some fucking respect for your peers and yourself and put it the fuck away already!"

With a squeak, the student scrambled to put the device away. "Yessir!" As soon as the professor stalked away, he turned to his dark-haired neighbor. "Dude, how the hell did he see that with only one eye?!"

"Mr. Eucliffe."

Jumping, the young man looked up into his professor's single indigo eye - which was now narrowed at him dangerously. "Congratulations. You are observant enough to realize that I'm missing an eye," the older man hissed, reminiscent of the serpents the class would be studying over the course of the semester. A thick scar ran down his face, permanently closing one of the orbs set into it. The other, however, more than compensated for the missing organ by concentrating all the baleful energy most people could only summon with two whole ones into his stare. "I may have only one eye," the professor said slowly, emphasizing each word with the utmost care, "but my ears work perfectly fine. So I suggest you keep comments like that inside your damn skull."

Only once he had the undivided attention of the room did he retreat.

"Now then! My name is Dr. Erik Scarlet, and yes I have a motherfucking doctorate so respect the title. It's either Dr. Scarlet, or as Mr. Eucliffe correctly intuited, it's 'Sir.'" The professor glanced around the room for dissenters. There were none. "Now, I'll be hopefully filling your brains full of important information on the types of toxins in the world, along with their various uses and dangers. Since I don't believe in bullshitting, or wasting _your_ valuable time along with _mine_ , let's get started."

"Hey."

With a soft groan, the student sitting next to the blond the professor had just berated, turned towards his neighbor. "What is it, Sting?!" he demanded in a low tone.

"Uh... Rogue? Did I ever tell him my name?"

The brunet rolled his crimson eyes at his best friend's question. "We literally just had roll-call."

"Yeah but... he remembered who I was? Just from that?"

Before another word was uttered, a piece of chalk went flying at mach speed past the pair, narrowly missing Sting's head. Hitting the desk behind them, the chalk poofed into a cloud of white dust.

"Now that I have your attention, Mr. Eucliffe. Mr. Cheney," Erik Scarlet stated calmly, as if he hadn't just thrown a piece of chalk at his students hard enough to vaporize the object upon contact. "Perhaps you can lead the class discussion on what the nature of toxins are."

* * *

"Holy shit!" Sting breathed, finally escaping the class. Spending the rest of the hour in that course with Dr. Scarlet had not left him with a better impression of the professor than the first few minutes had. In fact, the blond nineteen year old was fully convinced his latest college professor was part reptile.

Behind him, Rogue Cheney, also nineteen years of age, exited the lecture.

Sting leaned against the stone wall just outside the room they had just vacated and breathed heavily. "What kind of gangster was that man before he became a teacher?!"

"I wasn't," a baritone voice rumbled behind Sting.

A yelp emanating from his throat, Sting jumped about a foot into the air at the unexpected appearance of the very scary man he had just gossiped unfavorably about.

Said professor wore a rather smug expression, as Sting leaned even harder against the wall for support.

"Don't scare me like that!" Sting wheezed, his heart doing its damnedest to escape his rib cage.

"You forgot your laptop in the room." Holding out the object to the flabbergasted student, Dr. Scarlet snorted. "Moron."

Startled, Sting was unable to reply to the insult. Once the machine had been transferred back into his custody, he stuttered, "Uh... thanks."

"Don't forget it again," the professor warned. Just then, his phone rang with the most generic tone Sting had ever heard. Turning away from his students, he muttered, "Have a nice day, you two." Not waiting on a response from the pair, he answered his phone. "Lucy. What's going on?" He started to walk away. "No, I'm not going to forget. ... _You_ were the one who forgot last year. ...What do you mean by, 'my turn now?'"

"...Whoa," Sting mumbled, staring after his new teacher.

"That was unexpected," Rogue observed. "But we're going to be late. Come on."

* * *

Wendy dropped her fork, her eyes wide at what her two friends were saying. "You had _Cobra_ for your first class?" she asked, not bothering to retrieve her utensil.

"Cobra? Fits!" Sting stated.

Rogue rolled his eyes and handed their mutual friend a new plastic fork. Long association with Sting meant that he always grabbed extras at lunch. Same with napkins.

"Thanks, Rogue." Wendy took the proffered object. "He's a good professor - you'll learn a lot in that class if you pay attention," she advised, returning to eating her salad.

Sting eyed her with caution. "So why the weird reaction, then?"

The bluenette smiled weakly. "I was just a little surprised, is all. He's... um... the older brother of a friend of my brothers'."

"Seriously?" questioned Sting. "Small world, I guess. Hey, I've got a question for you, then! Who's Lucy?"

"His wife," she answered.

"That bastard managed to get himself a wife?!" the blond teenager blurted out.

"Um... yeah? Erik's been married for about... three years, now? It was a lovely ceremony." Wendy's eyes glazed over in recollection. "Although, he did throw a few fits during the whole thing. Then again, Natsu did set fire to the venue, so..."

The group collectively sweatdropped. "Yeah, that sounds like Natsu," Sting muttered, embarrassed over the actions of his childhood idol. "But that's another person in common, which surprises me. Hey - do you have a picture of this?"

"Sure." Bringing out her phone, Wendy scrolled through her album. "Here."

Indeed, there was a photo on her screen of a young man with flaming pink hair standing beside a conflagration looking chagrined. The familiar maroon-haired visage of Sting and Rogue's new professor was beside the pyromaniac, clearly shouting at him. Off to the side, however, stood the most beautiful woman either Sting or Rogue had ever seen. Blonde, and still in her wedding dress, it was pretty obvious that she was the bride. She was laughing at the proceedings, unconcerned by the fact that her wedding had just literally gone up in flames.

"Holy shit!" Sting swore. "How the fuck did he land a fox like _that_ , with _that_ personality! Much less _keep_ her!"

Rogue cuffed his long-time friend upside the head. "Don't be rude."

Wendy giggled at the pair. "I can tell you story, if you like? It's kind of long and convoluted, though," she offered and warned in the same breath. "And I kinda have to start with Erza - his sister. She introduced them, and Natsu and Gray played a big part, so..."

"Tell me!" Sting demanded.

"I have to admit that I'm curious as well," Rogue said, much more softly.

Smiling, Wendy nodded. "Okay, then! Now... where should I begin, precisely..."

* * *

 **And thus begins the tale of how the Scarlet family came to be.**


	2. Chapter 1

**I can't believe this took me so long to write. It's been in my head forever!**

 **Okay, so… the chapters going forward will be in this format: the beginning is the past, and the second half is the present. I'll include a header for each, but still.**

 **For the past parts, I'll generally state somewhere in the body of them what age they are. These parts aren't going to be consecutive.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

* * *

 ** _The Past_**

A child, perched on a windowsill, stared listlessly out at the sunny playground at the foster home. Her hand propping up her head, she rested her elbow on an upraised knee. Thick, red hair chopped short clung to her neck and brushed her shoulders.

"That her?" a baritone voice rumbled behind her.

She paid the owner no mind. He would leave soon enough. They always did.

"Yeah, that's Erza," the woman taking care of her stated. Erza refused to call them foster parents. There was nothing wrong with these people – in fact, they had been nothing but kind to her. But she'd had _real parents_ , thank you very much. "She's –"

"What happened to her eye?" the stranger asked, blunt.

Erza scowled to herself. People had been asking her that nonstop for days. She was tired of talking about it already! Stop asking her!

"It was injured during the incident. The one that –"

"I get it," snarled the unknown man. "I saw the fucking report."

The social worker and foster woman both sputtered at the sudden profanity, but it made the corners of Erza's lips twitch upward. _'Why did he ask if he knew?'_ she wondered, curious despite her reluctance to engage with the adults.

"It'll get better in time, the doctor said."

"I didn't ask that."

It was obvious to Erza, even without turning around, that the other adults didn't know how to deal with the man and his brusqueness. Somehow, that made Erza like him. Just a little bit. More than the others, at any rate. But she still wasn't going to turn around. She'd told herself she wouldn't. So she wouldn't look.

Papers were shuffled at the table, and the social worker sighed. "Well, it seems that you have all your paperwork in order, Mr. Scarlet."

 _'Scarlet?'_ Erza's ears pricked at that utterance. _'He has the same last name as me?'_ She had to fight with everything she had to keep from sneaking a peek at the mysterious man, now. It was extremely difficult.

"But I have to ask – are you certain that you wish to go through with this? I mean… you're extremely young. You have your whole life ahead of you… to be taking on such a heavy responsibility at your age is highly unusual."

Heavy, palpable silence descended upon the group.

It was broken a long minute later by an absolutely _terrifying_ growl. " _Excuse_ me?" the unknown man hissed. The hairs stood up on the back of Erza's neck at the sound. "She's in the fucking room! Her eye is damaged, not her ears _you utter morons_."

A chair scraped against the wooden floor.

"Mr. Scarlet! Where are you going?!"

He ignored them, stomping up to Erza's window.

The girl waited, feeling his stare burning into her back. Nervously, she stared at her hands so that she wouldn't catch a glimpse of him in the window's reflection.

"Hey," he said, his voice much more calm than before, though it still contained a rough edge. Like… river rocks grating against each other. "Can you turn around for a minute?"

"No," Erza replied, petulant.

"Alright then."

Erza blinked. He wasn't supposed to agree. That wasn't normal. She didn't know how she was supposed to take that. What did he want from her?

"I'm Erik. I'm your cousin. What's your name?"

Finally, she decided to forgo her principles and face him. Family? She just had to see this.

She was surprised to see a dark skinned man kneeling down at her level. His eyes, she noticed with shock, were a shade of purple she'd never seen before. They were a far cry from her own, dull brown ones. To be honest, he looked kind of mean to her. "Cousin? You don't look at all like me!" she told him, though she had to admit that his maroon hair was sort of similar to hers.

The man – Erik? – snorted at her. "Yeah, I'm your cousin. A pretty distant one, I'll admit. Nice eyepatch, by the way. You look like a pirate."

A tentative smile worked its way onto her face. "Really?"

"Really," he stated. "All you need is a parrot and a sword."

"I'm Erza," she told him. Tilting her head to the side, she gave him an appraising look. "How old are you?" she asked, remembering the concern addressed just prior.

Erik raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm eighteen. You?"

"Eleven."

He nodded. "Eleven is a good age for a pirate. It's number one… _twice_."

She giggled. "That's stupid."

"It is, isn't it," he agreed, rolling one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. "Anyway… I was wondering. Would you like to come live with me? I know it's sudden, and we've just met… so you don't have to decide right now."

Erza continued to stare at him. "Why?"

"Why come with me? Well… It's better than this dump."

The caretaker made a noise of protest behind Erik, though it was quickly cut off by a nudge from the social worker.

Shaking her head, Erza said, "No, that's not it. Why you?"

"…Family's gotta stick together, right?" was his reply, though it seemed oddly hesitant to Erza. Like he wasn't one hundred percent certain.

She shook her head again. "Why now? Where were you the first time I needed someone? When Grandpa Rob came to get me?"

He stared at her for a long moment. "Because I was here, too," he replied.

Erza considered this. "Can I think about it for a bit?"

With a nod, Erik told her, "Not a problem. Take all the time you need, Erza."

* * *

 ** _The Present_**

"Erik!" Erza shouted, running a brush one last time through her long, thick scarlet hair. "I'm ready to leave!"

Silence greeted her yelling. Pausing in her ministrations, Erza peered down the dim hallway. Light poured out from the open doorway to her older brother's study. "Erik?" she, once more, called out to him. Vaguely, she wondered if he'd gotten lost in his work again. Or – far more likely – he was sitting in his office chair, desperately trying to figure out what the hell she was talking about. Probably over-analyzing her speech, too, if past experience was any indication. …Oh god he was definitely overthinking it. "If you don't hurry up, we're going to be late to Natsu and Gray's graduation!" Erza clarified before he could think himself into a migraine.

The sound of wheels rolling across the wooden floor echoed out into the hallway. A maroon haired head poked out from the study's entryway. Blinking a single indigo eye in mock befuddlement, he muttered, "…That was today? …I forgot."

Hand on her hip, Erza pointed the other accusingly at her brother. "Liar! You knew full well it was today! You were just hoping I would forget so you wouldn't have to deal with it!"

"Can you blame me?" he grumbled, sticking a finger in one ear to clean it. "I still can't hardly believe someone thought they were fit to be let loose upon society at large. That should be a crime against humanity."

Erza rolled her eyes and allowed her arm to fall to her side. "Don't even try to convince me that you don't care about them. I know you far too well. You like them and that's why you agreed to go to their graduation in the first place."

"More like I invested way too much time into babysitting the brats over the past several years," Erik quipped, "and I want to see that investment pay off." He smirked and shrugged at his sister. "I noticed you didn't deny that the world isn't quite ready for their brand of… _destruction_."

Erik snorted when Erza started sweating nervously, unable to come up with a reply. "You know I'm right!"

"That's unimportant," she stated, clearing her throat. "What matters is that we agreed to attend, and we're going to be late if you don't hurry up and get ready!"

"Speak for yourself." Disappearing back into his office, Erza heard him grumble, "Your hairbrush is stuck to your scalp, by the way."

Frantically, Erza patted down her hair – only to find that the object was indeed hopelessly ensnarled in her crimson locks. A muffled scream emanated from her throat, and she rushed upstairs to her bathroom to assess the damage.

From all the way in his office, Erza could hear Erik laughing his ass off at her.

Untangling the hairbrush, Erza called down to him, "You promised you'd let me drive!"

A snarl wound its way up the stairs. "Like fucking hell I agreed to that shit! No way am I letting you behind a fucking wheel!" Banging ensued below, as he attempted to locate appropriate footwear. "You don't have a fucking license!"

"Not for lack of trying!" she informed him.

"Like that counts for shit while behind the controls of a huge metal object that could kill a person."

"Well, they gave one to you!"

"Yeah, they did! I have _one eye_ , and they gave one to me! They wouldn't even fucking _consider_ issuing one to you! Now think about it – what the fuck does that say about _your_ driving abilities?!"

"But Erik!" Erza protested. "I feel like I can _do it_ today!"

"No! That is no basis for me risking my neck today! You've already shaved enough years off my life over the past seven years! Most of them while I tried to teach you how to drive!" A few more thumping sounds came from downstairs. "There! I'm fucking ready! Hurry up!"

Erza squeaked. How had he gotten done so fast?!

…Unless he'd already been prepared from the start, she realized with a start.

The nineteen year old resisted the deep, intense urge to smack her forehead against the bathroom wall repeatedly – though only because she refused to show up to the graduation with a red mark on her face. Really. This man… Despite the fact that he was the most radically honest person she knew, he could deceive himself and put up a front about the silliest of things.

"Any time within this century!" Erik griped at her.

Storming down the stairs, Erza grabbed her purse. "I'm ready!" She paused when she reached the entranceway where her brother stood. Pointing, she inquired, "What is that? Is that… is that a camera bag?"

He looked at her as if she was crazy. "Yeah? What else would it be?"

"You do realize that you can just take pictures and video with your phone, right?" Erza stepped outside, Erik following on her heels. "And you _do_ care!"

As he locked the door behind them, he growled, "I _don't_ care! I literally could care less!"

"You know," she felt the need to point out, "you basically just admitted that you do." Erza smiled when he gave her a strangled groan of frustration in response. "So what's up with the camera?"

" _It's_ waterproof. The phone is _not_ ," Erik explained, walking to the car with Erza.

"Why would you even…" Erza trailed off when Erik gave her a knowing look. "Okay, point taken. This _is_ Natsu and Gray we're dealing with, here."

"Damn straight."

"…Are you sure I can't drive us there…?" Erza decided to try one last time.

Erik stared at her. "Natsu Dragneel once ate forty habanero peppers on top of his breakfast cereal and didn't even bat an eye," he reminded her. "And you managed to give _that kid_ – the most resilient little piece of shit I've ever had the misfortune of knowing – motion sickness while in a go-cart."

Erza thought about it for a moment. "I did do that, yes," she conceded. "But I was twelve at the time."

"The pattern has held true. Now buckle up," her brother ordered her.

Obediently, she did so. Glancing out the car window as they backed out of the driveway, she fought back a grin.

She'd give him this small victory, for now.

Because she had plans for her brother this afternoon.

Cunning, devious, _utterly brilliant_ plans.

He had no idea what was in store for him at the graduation.

* * *

 **Cobra was a bit OOC for the first part, I know. I thought maybe he might react like this, if he'd known that he had family.**

 **In case anyone is wondering about the switches from cousin to brother and vice-versa, in regards to Cobra's relationship to Erza, he is actually her cousin. She just calls him her brother, seven years later.**

 **Tell me what you guys think!**


End file.
